Definitely Sickening Shoal for style points. Snuff Out sadly seems to be the better card though.

chilbi , that gave me clarity. Thanks for the help!

voidlurker

Some card suggestions that may help.

Extraplanar Lens, Nirkana Revenant, Sadistic Sacrament, Vona's Hunger, Dismember, Contamination.

Hope that helps!

Hey hkhssweiss, much thanks for the input! :)

I totally forgot that Vona's Hunger existed! :)) I'll have to watch how quickly I can get to 10 permanents.

I think I can try running Dismember; the -5/-5 is significant, compared to Sickening Shoal which might end up becoming a pitched Last Gasp most of the time. That one mana to pay can be a steep cost on when the game is down to the wire, but it lets me hit Atraxa, Edgar, and the like.

As for Extraplanar Lens, I'm actually going back and forth with it and Crypt Ghast, hence I haven't unsleeved my Snow-Covered Swamp.

Extraplanar Lens gets me two-for-oned in my meta, even when I use it as a Bubbling Muck. I also have trouble making the most out of it because I run a lot of nonbasic lands. Crypt Ghast dies to the Pox effects and other removal spells but it gives me Extort and at least I don't lose a land when they respond to it. I used to run Nirkana Revenant too, along with Caged Sun but it was too high on the curve, so they got cut out.

I do want to run Contamination so that I have 2 functional copies of Infernal Darkness, but I don't have the creature support for it.

Sadistic Sacrament was once part of the deck, but I ended up being able to regularly pay for the Kicker cost, which made me rather unpopular. I switched to Praetor's Grasp and added multicolor mana rocks so it can also act as an "off-color" tutor. However, I do still bring it out when I'm playing in a cutthroat environment.

voidlurker No worries I love mono-black decks, as one of my babies is my Drana deck. I play in a pretty cutthroat environment so I was unsure of what your meta is like. But Contamination is a damn good card, it really pairs with Bitterblossom. Some other recommendation I would consider than would be Geth, Lord of the Vault as a way as denial and ramp if your opponents play a lot of ramp or creature dorks.

Some additional two drop rocks that can be considered is ye ol faithful Mind Stone and Thought Vessel. Mindblade Render is a bit slower version of Dark Confidant but it does get you that extra push for card draw. Twilight Prophet as well if you can hit that ascend trigger as it would negate the life loss. Mutilate can act in as a secondary board wipe, I'm also quite fond of Ashes to Ashes. Torment of Hailfire is quite devastating even at x=10.

If ya like I wouldn't mind discussing deck building :P

hkhssweiss much appreciated! :)

Drana was at one point at the helm of this deck too, but I switched to Erebos for the card advantage and because he doesn't die as much to my own spells.

Geth was also a former general for the deck, and it was fun having him run things, but in the end I was looking for something of a Pox deck for mono black. Not quite stax, but just enough pain to give people a headache.

Mhm. Contamination /IS/ that good. The deck in its current version just can't support it. I used to run it with a full package: Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Bitterblossom and the like along with Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact and sacrifice effects. But the deck started taking a different direction, so I had to remove them, and so Contamination had to go too.

I actually swapped Mind Stone and Thought Vessel for the 'colored' rocks that I mentioned earlier. So far it's been good.

As for Mindblade Render (and Dark Confidant) I find them more suitable for aggro decks. That's where I usually put them in. But I might make room for Twilight Prophet depending on how fast I can get to ten permanents. Card advantage, life gain, /and/ I get to bleed my opponents? Yes, please.

Mutilate and Ashes to Ashes also used to be in the deck, but the many non-basics that I run kept making the former ineffective and the latter was axed because I was cutting down on sorcery speed removal.

What's your experience with Torment of Hailfire? That card has always been on my radar, but I've never run it nor seen it in action. I don't like it when they get to choose their punishment. :))

voidlurker

Mmm now I see exactly the style of deck you are refining it into! Very cruel :P

I really like Torment of Hailfire if you can reliably get to at least x=10, since you are running a pox based style deck, you are already shortening them on resources so that is 10 triggers of either discarding a card, sacrificing a permanent, or losing 3 life. You don't get to choose their punishment but they have to and you can make them suffer for it.

A bit high on the cmc, but what do you think about Ob Nixilis, Unshackled? As well as Sinkhole? I'm surprised you are not running Go for the Throat but is it because it can't target non-artifact creatures relevant? Painful Quandary is also a good card to run in this build. Imp's Mischief is a fun card that can mess with people.

What are your thoughts? :3

hkhssweiss, it's been awhile, my dude.

I've included some of the your previous suggestions, yes including Torment of Hailfire . Imp's Mischief also found its way back into the deck. :D

After more than half a year, the deck has evolved into something vastly different from what I was playing. My meta shifted, so I had to grow with it. And because I haven't been online for quite sometime, at least half of the old deck is gone. I decided to just re-do the list instead of posting updates -- but I will push to post updates from this point on.

I like Ob Nixilis, Unshackled but he's going into the mono black reanimator deck that I'm rebuilding with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician at the helm. Go for the Throat was at some point in the deck, but I tend to keep the only the most versatile; especially when it comes to removal.

voidlurker, my man! It has been awhile!

Yeah fortunately there are so much goodies that came back, mono-black is definitely a great way for value plays. If ya need some help refining or deck advice feel free to ask! I'm pretty much a premier reanimator player so I know plenty of cards that fits the niche!

Ya can take a look at my baby deck for some ideas, and bounce ideas off of!

Tenebu's Gravedigging Tendencies | Primer

Commander / EDH hkhssweiss

SCORE: 140 | 186 COMMENTS | 17948 VIEWS | IN 37 FOLDERS

hkhssweiss
Oh man! I'm definitely gonna be using your primer as a reference for the other deck! Thank you for this! :D

You're welcome voidlurker!